In Bed With The Infatuation Co-Founder Andrew Steinthal

While Carson Daly and Total Request Live found mainstream success in the 2000s, another duo on set were collaborating on a media outlet of their own. Nine years after meeting on an episode of TRL in college, Andrew Steinthal and Chris Stang launched The Infatuation, the popular restaurant review site showcasing the latest and greatest eateries around the world. Aided by the explosion of Instagram, The Infatuation now reaches millions of people around the world with their site, app, and massive social media following.

Co-founder and CRO of the hit food blog that made #EEEEEATS famous, Steinthal spared a few minutes of his time to tell us how sleep impacts his ever-evolving lifestyle.

What’s keeping you up at night right now?

Andrew: I just think about our business, all the time. When you run your own business, you’re constantly thinking about the future – the things you need to do and things you shouldn’t do. That’s what keeps me up at night.

Go-to late night snack?

Andrew: My mind is pretty much always set to an 8-months-pregnant woman’s so that’s the kind of cravings I have, especially late at night.

If I’m really getting after it, it’s ice cream but that doesn’t happen that often, so usually it’s a bowl of cereal.

What makes you fall asleep?

Andrew: Life.

Last thing you do before going to sleep?

Andrew: Remove my four-year-old daughter from my bed and put her in her bed.

How does sleep impact your day?

Andrew: If I don’t get 5 hours, I’m very cranky. I’ll complain for like a half hour in the morning. It’s like a battle of who gets to sleep more between my wife and myself because one of us [has to] get up with the kids and the other [gets] to sleep an extra hour, but it’s usually me who gets up, which is fine because she does a lot more with them and she deserves the sleep.

Last dream you remember?

Andrew: I don’t remember what I dreamt about last night, but a couple nights ago I was in an airplane and there were all of these old Knicks and Yankees on the plane with us. We were flying to EEEEEATSCON [our food festival] and it was like I’d convinced all the people that I’m obsessed with to come with us.

[Derek] Jeter was up there and John Starks and Larry Johnson, Patrick Ewing and all these amazing dudes. Jeff Van Gundy, the old coach from the Knicks. We were all on a Delta plane flying to EEEEEATSCON and we had the entire plane [to ourselves]. There were poker games happening and it was just like I don’t know – I don’t know what was happening but it was…

What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed?

Andrew: I go grab my 1-year-old from the crib. He wakes me up every morning. I don’t [need to] set an alarm clock. I get him, change his diaper, then it’s party time. No more going back to bed.

What else do you do in your bed besides sleep?

Andrew: Try to do a lot of bangin’. But with two kids in the world, that doesn’t happen as often as it used to, which is a shame. [I also] do a lot of TV watching.

Actually, that’s not true – my daughter watches a ton of TV in our bed. I watch my daughter watch TV [so] I watch Trolls, Frozen, and Sing over and over again. That’s the extent of bed activities.

What’s your relationship with your electronics? Do they sleep with you?

Andrew: Yeah, I try to keep the phone away from the bed, but that never really happens. My computer [and] my phone are with me in bed all the time, which is sad to admit but true.

How do you deal with stress?

Andrew: I go running. That is my therapy. Just go fucking sweat and run to music and not think about all the other stuff that’s stressing me out.

If you had an extra fifteen minutes in your day, what would you do with it?

Andrew: That’s a good one…15 minutes is such a small amount of time. If you have an hour, you’d go work out, do something active, which is always my first move because it’s very hard to fit into your schedule. But if it’s only 15 minutes I’m probably checking my fantasy basketball or baseball statistics.

What does failing mean to you?

Andrew: Not really an option.

What city do you sleep in?

Andrew: I sleep in New York City!

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The views, opinions, and positions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of Tomorrow Sleep LLC, its affiliates or their employees.